Your health department inspector is the one you know. The one you deep clean for. The one who posts the score on the front window. Most restaurant operators spend their compliance energy entirely on that one inspector, cleaning schedules, temperature logs, pest control reports.
There is a second inspector. From a completely different government agency. Checking records your health inspector never asks for. And most operators don't know he exists until after the citation lands.
This is what he checks, what it costs when you fail, and what you need to produce within 60 seconds to pass both inspections simultaneously.
FOG stands for Fats, Oils, and Grease. Your municipal wastewater utility enforces FOG compliance, not your health department. They are two different government agencies that do not coordinate with each other. Their inspectors do not share findings. Their inspection schedules do not align. And their violation records are maintained in completely separate systems.
You can have a perfect health inspection: 100 out of 100, zero violations, and receive a FOG citation the same week from a completely different inspector looking at completely different records. The health inspector checks kitchen cleanliness. The FOG inspector checks your grease trap pump-out manifests, your 3-year documentation history, your UCO disposal chain, and whether a licensed contractor signed every record.
In 2026, Miami-Dade's automated FOG portal cross-checks pump-out manifests nightly. A log exceeding 90 days without service triggers a $250 administrative fee before any inspector ever visits, and then the inspector visits. A single Florida restaurant received 70 violations in April 2026, the most of any restaurant in the state that year, with grease trap documentation as a primary contributor.
"FOG violations are sometimes referred to the local health department, which can trigger a separate inspection of your food service license."
One FOG citation can put both compliance tracks at risk simultaneously.
When a FOG inspector arrives at your kitchen, they are not checking how clean it looks. They are checking whether you can produce specific documents immediately. Here is exactly what they ask for:
Missing any of these is an automatic violation, regardless of how clean the kitchen looks or whether the service was actually performed.
| Violation | Market | Fine |
|---|---|---|
| Missing grease trap manifest | Miami-Dade, FL | $100/manifest + $250 auto-fee |
| First-offense unlawful grease disposal | Florida (statewide) | $2,500 minimum |
| Repeat grease disposal violation | Florida (statewide) | $5,000 minimum |
| Operating without required grease trap | All Southeast states | $500–$25,000 + closure possible |
| Trap exceeding 25% capacity | Active enforcement markets | Citation + mandatory re-inspection |
| Federal Clean Water Act violation | Federal (all markets) | Up to $25,000/day/violation |
| Chronic violations, permit revocation | All markets | Kitchen closure until remediated |
The fines are not the worst consequence. When a blockage is traced to a non-compliant operator, the city bills that business directly for labor, equipment, video inspection, and sewer overflow cleanup, bills routinely reach five or six figures and are typically not covered by standard restaurant insurance policies.
Your fire marshal is the third inspector, and the 2025 NFPA 96 update changed the compliance threshold in ways most operators haven't heard about yet.
New monthly requirement: Any kitchen running 16+ hours per day now requires monthly hood cleaning, regardless of fuel type. Previously these operations qualified for quarterly cleaning. Hotels, late-night restaurants, 24-hour diners, and multi-event venue kitchens are all affected.
Documentation standard elevated: Digital before/after photos with timestamps are now required after every cleaning following NFPA 96. A sticker on the hood is no longer sufficient documentation in the event of an inspection or insurance claim.
Certificate content expanded: Must include technician certification details, specific areas serviced, and date, not just company name and date.
Unannounced inspections happen on Tuesday afternoons. Run this before an inspector does.
Every item you couldn't immediately confirm is a gap a FOG inspector, fire marshal, or health department reinspection can find. TruShine closes all seven gaps under one contract.
The problem with fragmented compliance vendors is that no one owns the full calendar. Your hood cleaning company doesn't know when your grease trap was last serviced. Your grease trap company doesn't know your fire suppression certification date. And no one is tracking whether your 16-hour-plus operation triggered the new NFPA 96 monthly requirement.
One compliance partner, one calendar, one documentation system, one account manager who owns every gap. That's not a pitch, it's the structural solution to a problem that fragments create.
20 minutes. Hood schedule, grease trap records, fire suppression status, UCO documentation, we check everything before an inspector does.
Or call: 678-751-8871 · 24/7
Free compliance audit, we check NFPA 96, FOG grease trap records, and fire suppression certification simultaneously. No charge. No obligation.
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